I often feel that many decisions in marketing are based upon “let's do what everyone else is doing!” It’s human nature for many of us to try not to be the outsider, to smother the contrarian within us and simply grow a fluffy coat and ‘BAAAA’ in unison with the rest of the herd.
In marketing this is actually more profound: it’s often career-jeopardising risky to do so: often you will have to justify your actions to a manager, and often as not that manager won’t have the expertise or the time to invest in understanding your choices. So, if you are not doing X, Y, or Z, when everyone else is, they will want to know why.
Sometimes, being a sheep at least gives you the ability to camouflage yourself in accepted wisdom.
This is particular true, in my experience, of social media. For example, the business partner of one of my clients is a huge multinational with global offices and has in excess of a hundred thousand followers on one social platform. But do they get much engagement from it? Their posts rarely get over 100 interactions, and I suspect many of those are from the company’s staff.
Now, I happen to know that their email marketing results, compliant with GDPR and focused on their B2B audience, do achieve much better results, even if their lists are not nearly so numerous as their social media following. And yet, they post every other week day, supported by reams of content.
So, the question, are they using their time wisely? And more importantly, how does this apply to YOUR business?
That example is of course B2B marketing, and social works better in B2C marketing in my experience as you can be more emotional, engage in storytelling, and it is also more likely to evoke a viral infection amongst a brand’s followers that a B2B campaign.
But even here, email is still a better performer for most. Especially those brands that have an online shop and can tailor their messages to offerings and discounts.
So why is this? How does email marketing win over social?
The consistency of email marketing over social media:
Email marketing has been around since the internet took off in the late 1990s. It existed long before social media, and because of this it has ingrained itself into our society and culture deeper than the somewhat transient fads that belong in the social sphere. It also means we have more data in a longitudinal sense to refer back to: marketing guru Rand Fishkin produced a fascinating graph based on his research of email open rates from 2005 - 2024, and it is remarkably stable, with open rates averaging 25% and click through rates around 2.5% throughout this period. And in typical Fishkin fashion, he sums it by saying “Statistically it’s better to trade 1,000 new followers for a single email subscriber!”
Social media platforms, on the other hand, are far from being so consistent. They are permanently in a state of disruption as they adapt to new technologies and new legislation. What worked one month might not do so again next. It is always trying to hit a moving target as users generate content from text to images to videos and now AI.
Not only can they change their terms of use overnight, potentially decapitating years worth of effort from a marketeer, but they are subject to considerable change in user behaviour in quite short periods, often spurred by competitor platforms: remember the incredible rise of TikTok? Engagement rates for the like to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pail in comparison to this new channel.
And let us also remember an industry statistic published by Litmus, an email marketing agency: “Email drives an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, higher than any other channel.”
If this statistic included the time invested to create content for both social media and email, then I think email would come out better still!
Not all emails are created equally! 5 Tips for best practice:
There are certain techniques you can use to make sure you get the best results from your database, and email marketing has advanced over the years with automation, mobile usage, and CRM platforms. But here are the ‘easy wins’ you should be considering:
Subscriber segmentation: Make your emails as relevant according to user interests, behaviours, and demographics. Better segmentation will improve open rates and click-throughs, and ultimately increase conversion rates.
Email personalisation: Everyone likes it when they are remembered! And this is true of email marketing as well. Personalising your emails, such as adding their first name and their organisation name, can go a long way to making the message more one-to-one, rather than one-to-many.
Email automations are increasingly important, more so when they are geared to user activity on your site. Have you ever noticed how, after browsing a product on Amazon but not buying, you might get a discount email a few days later? Certainly this works across many sites: I even got a Coursera annual usage for less than a third of the price after it’s Christmas sale by doing this.
Design with a mobile-first outlook: more than 50% of e-mails are now read on mobiles.
Make sure you add clear Calls-to-Actions (CTAs). Keep these limited so as not to confuse the reader, and aim to drop them into a funnel.
If you are lacking an email strategy, then I’d be happy to book in a call with you to see how we can get things moving, what assets you might need and how we can build your database.
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